Connect with Us

Idle No More spotlights shortcomings

Are “Idle No More” protestors complaining too much? Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Dick Harris certainly seem to think so, calling the movement a “cash cow” for the aboriginal industry and lacking in gratitude for all of the wonderful things the Conservatives have done for First Nations since taking office.

Could Harris be right? No, it seems to me that he could not be. Idle No More, as its name suggests, is not about demanding more hand-outs, or dragging out the treaty process forever, or perpetuating the status quo for the financial benefit of lawyers, consultants, or existing band chiefs. It is, in part, a protest precisely against that state of affairs. Deliberately or not, Harris seems to have confused a genuine grassroots movement that has spread like wildfire with a glacier-like Treaty process that has been occupied by special interests. It is not hard to spot the difference, even if you have a government that doesn’t want you to.

Consider how the movement got started. Last October, four women in Saskatchewan -- Jessica Gordon, Sheelah McLean, Sylvia McAdams and Nina Wilsonfeld – became concerned about Bill C-45, the Conservative government’s Omnibus Budget Bill, which had just been introduced in Ottawa. They began exchanging emails about how the bill might erode indigenous rights. And they were right to be concerned: it was wrong to de-regulate the protection of all smaller navigable waterways without greater parliamentary and public debate and scrutiny, by simply sticking it in an ostensible budget implementation bill.

Furthermore, Freedom of Information requests have since revealed that corporate oil and gas interests got their requests to “streamline” environmental regulations fast-tracked. Now, that might count as a special interest using the government as a “cash cow”! And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Natives were already agitated by the way that the Federal government selected the Gateway pipeline route preferred by Enbridge and its Chinese clients and customers, and then hypocritically denigrated the groups opposed to it as being backed by “foreigners”. We should have had a far more wide-ranging discussion of at least half a dozen options for transporting tar sands oil, before holding hearings on Northern Gateway route to Kitimat. And without all of the ridiculous hypocrisy.

It is great that Harper government issued an historic apology to First Nations for the residential schools in 2008. But that does not excuse the cavalier fashion in which native interests have been treated whenever they conflict with the government’s economic priorities. Like the F-35 fiasco, the determination to close the Onsite clinic and build more prisons regardless of either expert or public opinion; the breath-taking “any treaty is a good treaty” rush to sign trade deals, the Prorogation crisis, the unilateral cap on health spending, and the omnibus budgets themselves, the C-45 amendments are an example of Stephen Harper’s general downgrading of democracy and proceduralism in policy-making. I for one find the prime minister’s whole approach to be a step in the wrong direction. The First Nations do not protest too much; the rest of us protest too little.

Mark Crawford is an Assistant Professor at Athabasca University. He can be reached at markcrawf@gmail.com.

We encourage an open exchange of ideas on this story's topic, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. Personal attacks, inappropriate language, and off-topic comments may be removed, and comment privileges revoked, per our Terms of Use. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.